Thursday 2 February 2012

Explore!

Logic will get you from A to Z; Imagination will take you everywhere. - Albert Einstein

Today was a bad day for snowmen, but a great day for exploring.  The impenetrable fields of summer, covered with high grass and poison ivy, have now been flattened by the weight of the melting snow. A whole new world became available ...a world for the previous few months we had not had access.  My children, nieces and nephew traded in their snow boots and pulled on their rain boots,  and were ready to tackle the muddy fields.  As we covered field after field...examining little streams, and old fences, old abandoned animal shelters, and fallen trees, my nephew kept repeating, "Auntie Christina, I know where the little dogs live...I want to show you where the little dogs live."  And I kept repeating, "What little dogs?"  He would reply, "You, know, the little dogs."  After about twenty times repeating this conversation he emphatically said, "You know, the little people you told us about....I know where their dogs live."

The fence that separates the land of the little people from our own

Some of my favourite memories of childhood were of the stories my mom would tell.  I vividly remember our walks through the park and her stories of the gnomes that lived in the trees along the path.  It made the world feel magical...and the ordinary became extraordinary.  In turn, I enjoy sharing the excitement of this world with my children and nieces and nephews.  In the fall, I had brought all the children to a fence that had rusted shut over time.  As they all put their faces up to the fence I began to tell them a story about what lived on the other side.  The younger ones eyes grew wide as they listened.  My oldest sons just smiled and added to the story in their own way. 

My little explorers

I had not remembered my stories from back in the fall, but it was interesting to hear that my nephew had taken them to heart, and not only that...had added his own chapter.  He excitedly became the story teller spinning his own tale...and again the world  became that magical place ... 

1 comment:

  1. Again, you have taken heartrendering photos. Michel loves the photos of the fences, and property. He just gazes at them......

    Your gnomes reminds me of the elves I used to search for under a "big bridge" over a stream in my childhood barnyard.

    thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete